


Malasada love

by Parachutes



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Confessions, Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 08:36:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9713696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parachutes/pseuds/Parachutes
Summary: "What he found was… something he had not expected. At all. It was a bread-like thing covered in way too much powdered sugar. It had a weird shape… what the hell, was it supposed to be a butt? Gladion frowned some more, trying to figure out the meaning of all this weird shit, until his gaze fell on a small envelope tied to the basket’s handle. He unlaced it before taking everything back inside and closing the door behind him.When opening the envelope, he nearly dropped the postcard that was revealed as the front was a huge red heart. Wait, it was February the 14th today, wasn’t it? Was someone trying to pull a prank on him or something? Oh man, he really did not want to open the card and deal with all this trouble and bullshit, but on the other hand, he would probably die of curiosity if the threw it away.So Gladion sighed and opened the card. A small look wouldn’t hurt, afterwards he could resume drinking coffee and doing the things he had planned to do today."In which Hau decides it's about time that something happened between him and Gladion, so he does something that would fit him the most: he makes him a malasada for Valentine's Day. However, things don't go exactly the way he had planned.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello~~  
> Wow, this is actually the first time I managed to write a fanfic for Valentine's Day a few days béfóre the said day. I'm so proud of myself okay.   
> I hope you all like it. Please tell me what you think and enjoy! *W*   
> As always, English is not my first language so feel free to point out any mistakes. :)

It was Monday evening, and it had already been dark outside for hours now. Hau found himself stuck in the huge kitchen of his grandfather, and it was getting late. Hala went to sleep long ago, and he strongly hoped that the man wouldn’t wake up in the middle of the night only to find out that his grandson was still working in the kitchen on the evening before Valentine’s Day.

Once again placing his creation in a pan filled with oil – how many times had he tried already? He had lost count – Hau let himself sink on the ground with a sigh, lowering himself against the kitchen counter. Maybe he was being way too passionate about this. One – most people just casually bought some sweets or a cute plush toy for their lovers for Valentine, instead of putting all of their sweat and tears into an own creation and two – he didn’t even have a lover. And anonymously sending presents or letters was something only done in movies or by love-struck teenage girls. Hau was not a love-struck teenage girl.  And yet here he found himself, trying to make a heart-shaped malasada. Even though Hau loved malasada’s dearly, he had never tried to make one himself, and he had never thought it would be so freaking difficult. On top of that, he felt his determination sinking since the one who was going to receive his gift – that is, if he actually managed to finish one without burning or undercooking it – was a grumpy dishonest emo kid who would never appreciate his efforts anyway. And since it was more than a little obvious from whom a _malasada_ would come, he would figure it out immediately and probably despise Hau for the rest of his life.

_Oh come on, Hau, don’t you go all emo now, like him._ He told himself before standing up. After turning the malasada – that honestly looked more like a weird shaped apple or _butt_ even – he let his eyes travel over the havoc he had created. It was bad. Like, really bad. The counter was a mess of flour, kitchen tools, and leftover dough sticking to it, and here and there were also his failures. Hau didn’t get mad easily, and if he did anyway he was always pretty good at controlling or hiding it, especially when he had company. But the truth was that once he actually let his anger win, he could become furious. And well… he might have just thrown some burned malasada’s around.

‘Oh man…’ he let out. ‘What have I done? It’s a complete mess.’

He took a quick glance at the ugly malasada that was happily sizzling in the oil – it still needed some time -  and then grabbed his phone. There was a message from Moon, of course, since he had told her – way too enthusiastically – about his plans. Naturally, she now wanted to know everything about his progress and the particular person’s reaction tomorrow.

_So, have you finished?? You gotta sleep well for tomorrow, it’ll be a big day!_

Hau stared at the pan on the stove and sighed at himself.

_Nope, I think this’ll be my last try. I’m getting tired._

Immediately, a reply arrived. Apparently Moon was not sleeping yet.

_You better keep trying until you succeed!_

_Do you want me to cook all night? I don’t think I’m a good malasada cook, Moon._

_Aww, come on, don’t give up! I’m sure this one will be fine. Just keep a close eye on it so it won’t burn. And don’t be too hasty. From what I’ve read, you need to give it a lot of time or it will be undercooked._

_I know._

_Good! Now, do you already know if you’re gonna give it to him directly tomorrow or anonymously?_

Hau didn’t know. Just leaving the malasada in front of his apartment, knocking and running away sounded like something cowards would do. Moreover, he seemed like the kind of guy who would just ignore it altogether, which would mean Hau had worked his ass off for nothing. Because well, he didn’t really want to stay anonymous… The whole reason that he was doing this ridiculous thing was because he needed answers. He was eleven years old when he started developing a crush on the angry emo kid, and that was already four years ago now. Hau was tired. Nothing was happening. And the feelings were also not magically disappearing into the void.

                Sometimes, the other teenager would reach out to him and show him one of his rare smiles that made Hau’s heart flutter, but at other times he would push him away violently. Gladion was crazy like an ocean – pushing and pulling, always changing, never the same. Deep down, Hau understood that he was probably a little scared of friendship and love, considering all that he had been through in the past, so that meant Hau had to be patient and careful. But also that it was probably him who had to take the first step if he ever wanted to know if Gladion felt the same.

                So it was probably for the best to swallow his pride and leave the weird heart-shaped malasada with a cheesy letter at his doorstep, and then walk away. Gladion wasn’t stupid. He would immediately realize it was him. And then it was up to him to take the second step and search for Hau.

                Hau forced himself up and decided this would be his course of action. Only Moon didn’t need to know that. It was better if she left herself out of this. She was a little too… erm, blunt for these kind of situations. Didn’t really know what it meant to be subtle.

                _Oh shit, the malasada!_ Quickly, Hau turned around and felt a wave of relief wash over him as soon as he saw his creation was still not black, like his predecessors. The alarm time that was still ticking, told him it still needed a few minutes until the malasada had reached its maximum cooking time. Patience, patience…

Hau actually felt like this one was going to be fine. Its shape was a little strange, but it still resembled a heart and, as a matter of fact, it looked tasty. His failures had never looked good in the slightest meaning of the word. He could feel new determination beating inside of him, turning into energy that made him move quickly towards the small rush basket het had prepared. It was already filled with napkins that looked as cheesy as could be – pink and red hearts were all over the place and Hau grimaced, almost wanting to laugh at himself. But no, he was going through with this, no turning back now.

                His alarm sounded and he turned off the stove, his bright eyes staring at his creation contently. It was okay! It wasn’t _beautiful_ , but he would never be able to make it any better than this and he had been trying for more than three hours now. _It does need to cool down though… Or it will completely soak the napkins in the basket with its oily mess._

                Yawning, Hau took a look at the time on his phone, deciding that he had no time to wait for it to cool down. It was already way too late. He would wake up very early tomorrow to keep his plan hidden from Hala and deliver the malasada to Gladion first thing in the morning. Yep. Now he would just go to sleep… well, after cleaning up this mess.

♥♥♥

Gladion was just making a cup of coffee for himself, and preparing some breakfast for his team – each cup a little different, according to their tastes – when there was a sound so loud that he almost let the kettle slip out of his hands. Just in time, he was able to catch it, but burned his hands in the process. Cursing, he threw the kettle on the kitchen counter and ran towards the tap to cool his hands. He angrily watched the door as he let the cold water drown his burning fingers, wondering what in the world had bounced on his door so fucking loud. There was no single sound right now, which meant they weren’t as impatient as they had announced themselves to be. Well, Gladion was not about to sprint towards the door to let them in. They made him burn his freaking hands, so they could wait.

                 While he waited for his hands to cool down – he knew from experience that this needed quite some time or he would regret it later – he observed the damage and realized that he had actually managed to save both the hot water inside of the kettle and the hot milk he always mixed with his coffee. He might seem like a tough guy, but Gladion actually always had his coffee with a lot of milk, he didn’t really like bitterness as much, ironically.

                After his mother had recovered enough and she and Lillie returned from Kanto to take care of the Aether Foundation again, Wicke had advised him to go live by himself for a few years, to figure out who he was and what he wanted to do. Afterwards, he had a very emotional talk with his mother who had also told him that she wanted Gladion to be free, he need not feel responsible for the Foundation. Lillie had decided she wanted to stay with their mother, helping out at the Foundation and also slowly taking steps towards becoming a ‘real trainer’. But Gladion, he was old enough now to live on his own and he had to be aware he had a choice in all of this.

                So Gladion had once again left home, searching for an apartment and spending time training and doing all kinds of jobs to earn money. After a year, he had returned to Aether and now he was working part-time there, which felt a lot better than letting go of it completely. He knew that after he had earned a lot of money, he would go travel the world for some time with his team, exploring new places and getting stronger in the process. For now, he was living in Hau’oil city in a small house, and the situation as it was right now pleased him. 

                He was not very pleased by the sudden disturbance of his peaceful morning, however. So after a few minutes he closed the tap and went to open the door to find out who he was going to yell at. Except, there was no one at all when he opened the door, only the soft summer breeze slipping inside. Gladion felt his irritation rising and rising, and he groaned, rubbing his temples as he let his gaze fly over the surroundings outside.

                He was about to go back inside and angrily throw the door so he would feel the house shudder in a satisfying way, when he suddenly noticed a small rush basket on his doorstep. Frowning, he kneeled down and stared at it dumbfounded. It looked like a basket one would leave an unwanted baby Meowth in or something. Gladion reached out to open the basket – he could take whatever Pokémon was inside to Aether where they could care for it better than he could. He expected something to jump out and hiss at him, scared, but nothing happened, so he just proceeded with opening it.

                What he found was… something he had not expected. At all. It was a bread-like thing covered in way too much powdered sugar. It had a weird shape… what the hell, was it supposed to be a butt? Gladion frowned some more, trying to figure out the meaning of all this weird shit, until his gaze fell on a small envelope tied to the basket’s handle. He unlaced it before taking everything back inside and closing the door behind him.

                When opening the envelope, he nearly dropped the postcard that was revealed as the front was a huge red heart. _Wait, it was February the 14 th today, wasn’t it? _Was someone trying to pull a prank on him or something? Oh man, he _really_ did not want to open the card and deal with all this trouble and bullshit, but on the other hand, he would probably die of curiosity if the threw it away.

                So Gladion sighed and opened the card. A small look wouldn’t hurt, afterwards he could resume drinking coffee and doing the things he had planned to do today.

 

_Dear Gladion,_

_I dare you to come find me if you are smart enough to figure out who I am._

_I have something to tell you._

_Enjoy the malasada!_

With those words, maybe a million of thoughts crossed Gladion’s mind. It was such a chaos that he didn’t know how to feel anymore. Most of all, he was mad. It was more than obvious from whom this stupid butt-malasada came. And it was also no longer hidden deep inside that Gladion had a not so small crush on the slightly younger happy-go-lucky teen. It was also very clear to Gladion that Hau felt nothing like that for him, hell, it would be more likely that he had a crush on his younger sister. And now, the worst thing had happened. Hau was _mocking_ him. Gladion had no idea how bad it was – had he figured out that he had an unrequited weird gay crush on him? Or was he just teasing him with the fact that Gladion would never get Valentine’s presents? He _really_ hoped it was the last option, but he had no way of knowing.

                Angrily, he grabbed his coffee and took a sip. It was cold. And his Pokémon were hungry. What a great way to start the day.

♥♥♥

During the rest of the day, Gladion found himself unable to keep Hau out of his mind. It was extremely frustrating, since he had somewhat succeeded in living with this stupid crush, waiting for the feelings to die down, but it was like he was falling for him all over again, remembering every stupid little thing that had happened between the two of them.

                He was thinking about him when walking through the city in order to do his weekly groceries, when he was doing his daily training with Silvally and the others, when he went to the post office where he worked every Tuesday for sorting out mail. It was a good thing he only had to work for three hours today, because he made more mistakes than ever, thinking about the way Hau’s face seemed to fully light up when he smiled.

                When he came home after work he felt extremely exhausted, and he still had to make himself some dinner. He fell down on the couch first, telling himself he needed some proper rest before preparing anything.

                It was a little hard to admit, but Hau had fascinated him from the very first time they met. Back then, Hau challenged him to a battle and lost terribly. Still, he kept smiling, saying this was a great experience to learn from and he surely got better after battling such a powerful opponent. Gladion actually got mad and irritated with him at that time, but it was mostly because he did not know how to understand Hau’s way of doing things. Later, he would learn to, and it would inspire him. It was not a bad thing to lose, it was something to learn from and get stronger from in the process. Hau always kept smiling, even though things got hard, forever looking at the positive sight of everything. And he was beautiful like a ray of sunshine like that. The complete opposite of him.

Hau didn’t like him much though, always complaining about him trying to look cool and not being honest to himself. Later, it changed into him teasing Gladion with small things. He didn’t actually mean harm, and it never really hurt Gladion, so… That realisation made him wonder why Hau would go as far as making a butt-shaped malasada for Valentine’s Day in order to bully him with having no loved ones. Sure, Hau liked teasing, but like this? It was just a bit too harsh to be his style.

                Maybe he was just falling back to wishful thinking, which was not like him, meaning he was starting to get desperate and pathetic. But Hau actually said in his letter that he would wait for him. Maybe it was time to face him, see what he wanted, to learn the truth about this stupid prank and the reason for it.

‘Well then.’ Gladion got up, feeling impulses racing through his body. Before running out the door, he took the weird malasada with him, as proof.

♥♥♥

That’s it. He was not coming. Not today. Not ever. It had been a waste of time, stress and energy. Hau was washing the dishes after dinner, staring into nothingness as he repeated the same movement. He smiled sadly to himself. It had been too good to be true, hadn’t it? Of course Gladion wouldn’t come running to him, falling into his arms. They wouldn’t kiss and they wouldn’t start dating right then and there. Of course not. He also hadn’t _really_ expected that, right? So why had he bothered anyway? Maybe he was starting to become a little pathetic, unable to do anything with his stupid crush. He just had to move on, trying to forget his feelings as they would quiet down over the years. For now, he really needed a walk, though. So quickly, Hau finished the dishes and yelled to Hala that he was going outside for a bit, before closing the door behind him.

                Immediately, he could feel the soft and pleasant evening air embracing him and he took a deep breath – the air tasted of ocean, of summer, of freedom. Hau never liked being inside for too long, he easily felt trapped between four walls. He was made to explore the world, be directly under the sky embraced by the sun’s light and the moon’s gaze. It was alright – he could just try to become friends with Gladion and then it would all be okay. Gladion would fall in love with someone else and he would to, eventually. Teenage crushes didn’t last forever anyway.

                But then, footsteps. Running. Hau turned around to see the person he had been thinking about all day, every hour, every minute. There were a lot of things he felt while looking at Gladion who was catching his breath before he could say anything. A lot of things. But on top of it all, he was pretty angry with him.

                ‘So, you’re finally here?’ he said, crossing his arms behind his head in a carless way. Well, that was that then. Now he had to make his confession anyway, even after deciding he would refrain from it. Stupid emo kid.

                Gladion didn’t reply with words, but lifted his malasada in the air. Hau didn’t like admitting it, but the sight struck his heart in a pretty painful way.

‘You didn’t even try it?’ He sounded more angry than sad, but that was good.

The other boy stared at him with a complicated expression on his face that Hau couldn’t quite read. So he waited. And waited. Until Gladion finally spoke.

‘Why’d you send me a butt-shaped malasada?’ The confused angry-ish frown the slightly older teen made was almost as cute as it was oblivious and for a second Hau didn’t know whether to scream at him or laugh at him. Or both. Or just cry.

Instead, he let out a sigh, closed his eyes to gather his thoughts and then turned to face Gladion. ‘Gladion. That is not a butt. Thank you very much for telling me I’m such a bad cook.’

‘It’s not?’

‘Nope.’

‘Then what is it?’

‘Why don’t you try to figure it out by yourself?’ Hau could feel a smirk taking over his lips. Honestly, he couldn’t help it. The fact that he was nervous as heck was making his tendency to tease the other boy a little worse than ever and it was not convenient. At all.

‘I don’t fucking know,’ Gladion growled. Hau could notice he was getting nervous as well, because his right hand was slightly moving towards his face already, a shadow of the twitch the teenager had ever since Hau knew him.

‘Taste it then? I worked hard on it, y’know. It hurts a little that you’re not eating it at all.’

‘Fine. How about you tell me what you meant by the stupid note that came with it after I taste the fucking malasada?’

‘Don’t curse so much, Gladion, calm down.’

He made a growl again and then took a bite so angrily, that Hau couldn’t hold back a smile. Shit. Gladion was cute. He was not going to get rid of this crush that easily. _Well, yeah, of course not, you’ve been suffering from it for around four years now._

                Closely, Hau watched him as he took bite after bite, seeing his expression was relaxing more and more, until Gladion swallowed and looked him in the eye.

‘It’s good…’ he then said.

Those were just a few words, but they lit a fire within Hau, making him smile more bright than ever.

‘You put chocolate in it.’

‘Well, yeah, of course,’ Hau answered. ‘It’s Valentine’s Day after all.’

Gladion turned silent and his cheeks were getting slightly red, making Hau wonder if he had figured it out. Well, there was no way back anymore. He needed to confess right there, right now. And Hau had never felt more nervous in his whole damn life. His hands were shaking slightly and they felt sweaty, but he took a few steps forward anyway, until he was facing Gladion properly. It made him happy to notice he had actually grown to be a little taller than him over the past years. It felt like a nice, childish achievement.

‘Okay, now, I’ll tell you what I wanted to say.’ Hau scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Gladion was staring at him with those intense green eyes and he was… honestly a little scared. What would he say? What would he do? Would he hate him? Would he be disgusted? Would he leave immediately? Would he stop being his friend?

                There was no point in worrying about it, though. He had to say the words and face the consequences. Wasn't that also the whole purpose of him making the heart – not butt – shaped malasada for him?

‘Gladion…’ He forced himself to look him in the eyes. ‘I’m in love with you. Have been for a few years already. I didn’t know how to tell you, so yeah.’ He smiled nervously, again folding his arms behind his head.

For a while, there was no reaction. Gladion just kept staring at him, blinking, without any obvious expression and as silent as the night. It made Hau’s heart pound like crazy in anticipation, and he wondered absently if the other teen was able to hear his heartbeat like this.

‘You… really?’ Some words finally came, and Hau had to watch Gladion’s expression carefully in order to make sense of it. It was… a little sad, but not quite. Hurt… but also not really that either. Gladion fumbled with his hair, not meeting his gaze, and suddenly he understood. Gladion was scared to believe him.

                Without thinking straight, Hau reached out to touch his face softly. Slowly, he caressed his cheek, and nothing more than that, until Gladion was ready to look at him. When he did, there was honesty in his eyes, and tranquillity. There was no chaos, no panic, no dismay.

‘I… am in love with you too…’

And that was all Hau needed to close the small gap between their bodies and capture Gladion’s lips with his own. For now, and for ever.


End file.
